As young girls growing up in Germany, Heike Alberts and Monika Hohbein-Deegen lived on opposite sides of the Berlin Wall. Twenty years ago, they both witnessed the fall of the wall from very different perspectives.

On Monday, Nov. 9, Alberts and Hohbein-Deegen — now both faculty members at the University of Wisconsin Oshkosh — will share their experiences as the campus commemorates the 20th anniversary of the historic event with a daylong series of presentations and exhibitions.

“It was such a momentous event,” said Alberts, who was a student attending high school in West Berlin at the end of the Cold War in 1989. “I wanted to celebrate the day so the next generation of students has the opportunity to learn about the wall’s impact.”

“The Berlin Wall and Beyond” activities on campus will include:

“Life on Both Sides of the Wall: Berlin 1945-1989,” 11:30 a.m.- 12:30 p.m., Reeve Memorial Union, Room 202, by Alberts, an associate professor of geography; Hohbein-Deegen, an assistant professor of German; and Michelle Mouton, an associate professor of history.

College of Letters and Science Dean’s Symposium, “Children at the Great Divide — Cold War Policy in Berlin 1945-1955,” 3:30 p.m., Reeve Memorial Union, Room 221, by Mouton.

Screening of the film “The Tunnel,” 7 p.m., Reeve Theatre.

Berlin Wall Exhibit, Nov. 2-30, display case in Polk Library lobby, with photos and original documents and pieces of the Berlin Wall.

In the first presentation, Alberts will share what it was like growing up in West Berlin surrounded by the wall. She said about 95 percent of the time she didn’t notice the wall’s presence in her life. “The wall was already there when I was born, so it was absolutely normal,” she said.

However, when Albert’s family wanted to travel to see relatives in East Berlin, the visit had to be planned weeks in advance. Also, many restrictions had to be considered, including making sure they carried no printed materials with them over the border.

In East Germany, about three hours southwest of Berlin, life for Hohbein-Deegen was quite different.

“I come from a country that no longer exists,” she said. “I was 20 years old and a university student when the wall came down. That’s the age of many of our students here today at UW Oshkosh.”

Living in East Germany, Hohbein-Deegen grew up “very much aware that we were locked up.” Also, her family’s proximity to the border meant they had access to Western television and had a realistic view of life on the other side.

Hohbein-Deegen said the inability to travel outside her country had the biggest impact on her. As an education student learning how to teach English, she never dreamed that she would one day have the opportunity to teach in an English-speaking country.

Just six days after the wall came down, Hohbein-Deegen crossed the border into West Germany for the first time, where she immediately noticed how much more colorful and modern the country looked compared with East Germany.

At a supermarket, she was overwhelmed with the variety of options. “I saw things I had never seen in my life … like kiwi,” she said.

The long-term effects of the end of the Cold War have been significant in Hohbein-Deegen’s life.

“I was old enough at the time that the wall fell to understand what was happening and young enough to take full advantage of the changes and turn my life totally around,” she said.

I would really love to come to your presentation, but unfortunately I will be teaching my students, who are learning German. It would be nice to bring them, but I have too many 7th grade students and I won't have enough time to plan to bus them. If you have a video I'd love to use it!
Teresa BaDour

David WilliamsNovember 5, 2009 at 9:03 am

The sessions will be recorded and posted to iTunesU and the College of Letters and Science Special Reports site: http://www.uwosh.edu/colsreports/berlin-wall-beyond
— Editor

Gerald J KonsNovember 8, 2009 at 11:56 am

Unfortunately, I am unable to attend this event.
As a USAF pilot, I had three month temporary assignments in 1963, 1964, and 1965 to Frankfurt Rhein Main Airbase. My squadron was the initial response response unit to re-supply Berlin, if the Russians attempted another Berlin land blockade. We were trained to achieve this in an electronic jamming environment. All external navigation and communications aids were to be considered unreliable, and of course, who really knew what the Russian and East German fighter interceptors would do in such a scenario? Two USAF aircraft were shot down in 1964 after straying into then East Germany.
Now fast forward to the 90's. American Airlines instituted Chicago/Berlin air service. My first trip to Berlin put us directly over an abandoned Russian MIG jet fighter base after passing Mannheim en-route to Berlin. The next morning, the departure controller told us to turn north and proceed direct to Rostock. We proceeded as directed, but those 1960's memories created quite an unexpected jolt in my brain, as our Chicago return flight responded to the controller's request.